Module B2 · Your first resource

Reading and editing config.lua

Ninety percent of the time you spend with a downloaded script is not writing code. It is opening one file, config.lua, changing a few values, and restarting. This lesson shows you what that file actually is, how a script reads it, and where the landmines are. By the end you will read any config.lua with confidence and know the difference between a safe edit and one that takes the resource offline.

You'll build: A tiny resource with its own config.lua, read from a separate file as a shared_script, plus a clean before/after config edit you can prove in the console.
Time: ~18 minutes
You need: A local FiveM practice setup you can restart, a text editor, and the txAdmin Live Console open. Your first-line-of-Lua mental model helps but is not required.
You'll learn: The Config = {} table pattern, the keys most scripts expose, why editing config is safe but editing core logic is risky, and exactly how one missing comma breaks a whole resource

BEFORE YOU START

What a config file is

A config.lua is just a Lua file that builds one big table and leaves it where the rest of the script can find it. There is no magic. The whole pattern is this:

code

Config = {}
Config.Debug = true
Config.MaxPlayers = 32

Config = {} creates an empty table, a container that holds named values. Each line after it drops one more value in under a name. is the name inside the table, and you read it back the same way you set it. That is the entire idea. A real script just has more lines.

What a config file is

Keep reading the full lesson